Mobile truck and sewer cleaning machines are commonly used by municipalities and others for cleaning wastewater collection system lines (sewer lines) using a sewer hose to deliver high pressure water. Such cleaning is periodically necessary to remove accumulated sludge and sediment. The sewer hose is inserted into the sewer line typically at a downstream manhole. Once inserted, the sewer hose is generally propelled up-stream through the sewer line by the high pressure water. The debris and sediment dislodged by the high pressure water is washed downstream and collects in the downstream manhole.
The high pressure water used to dislodge the debris and sediment is supplied by a hydro cleaning truck. The cleaning truck includes a pumping mechanism connected to a fluid supply for delivering water under jet pressure through one or more sewer hoses wound on a reel. The hose may be wound onto or unwound from the reel to thread the hose into or withdraw it from the sewer line. Unfortunately, a standard hydro cleaning truck is often not able to reach manholes located in remote areas. When manholes cannot be reached by the hydro cleaning truck, additional equipment and crew members are required.
Bulky equipment such as large tractors are typically used to reach manholes located in remote and/or hard to reach areas. Quite often, the traditional used machine requires additional resources and personnel. For instance, it has to be transported to the job site with a truck or trailer which requires one or more additional workers. Additionally, the machine generally takes up a lot of valuable time to transport to its desired location after being unloaded from the truck since it travels very slowly. Moreover, getting this machine to its desired location can be very dangerous since it could roll over as the operator traverses across uneven terrain.
Often a sewer access cannot be reached by such a large machine, because of space or other constraints. If the machine cannot reach a manhole, then workers are required to pull the sewer hose by hand into the sewer line to be cleaned. This can be an arduous task if the manhole is hundreds of feet away from the hydro cleaning truck. Importantly, this type of labor could lead to serious injuries such as shoulder, joint or back injuries since the workers have to be bent over in order to pull the sewer hose into the sewer line. Further, the labor involved is very strenuous as a result of the weight of the water inside the hose, the resistance of the hose on the ground and the length of the hose being pulled.
In light of the shortcomings in the prior art, there clearly exists a need for an apparatus to simplify′ the cleaning of sewer lines with remote manhole access points and limited access to hydro cleaning equipment.